Designed by Death

by Melody Rose

  It was the shopkeep.

  The woman with the heart-shaped face and a pointed chin. Her pale skin looked almost translucent and was enhanced by the coal-black hair that hung around her face in stick-straight lines. She had slender fingers with knobby knuckles and black nails.

  “That bitch!” I grumbled as I slammed my fist into my palm. “She sold me the dress for the dance.”

  “The one that made everyone go crazy?” Ansel said, comprehension dawning across his face.

  “Yes!” I agreed. “If she took over Esme’s memories and actions, and gave Violet the apple seeds and me the dress, she’s been the one behind this mess all along.”

  “Well, they don’t call her the goddess of discord for nothing,” Erich added unhelpfully.

  “But then,” I turned to Esme, my heart growing heavy. “None of this was your fault. You weren’t in control of your own actions.”

  Esme shook her head sadly. “No, I wasn’t. But I made the choice. I made the bargain with her and didn’t consider the consequences.”

  “She tricked you,” I clarified, making sure I was clear. I took a step towards Esme, pointed and purposeful. “None of this was your fault. You shouldn’t have been punished like this.”

  “I fell for it,” Esme said with a grimace. “I deserve every punishment.”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but a booming voice swallowed my words, and I never got a chance to speak my piece.

  “Daughter of Hephaestus!” Charon shouted. His voice sounded as though he was on surround sound. I reached up and covered my ears, but that did nothing to block out the obnoxious sound of his voice. “The Lord of the Dead requests an audience with you. Come out here now so I can take you to him.”

  I squished my face together, a true sign of my discomfort. I wasn’t ready to face Hades, not yet. Not after learning all this new information about Esme and Eris. I had a thousand thoughts swarming in my head like bees. But Charon didn’t even give me a moment to breathe. His voice blared once more.

  “If I don’t see you in the next minute, I will have no choice but to leave you here in Tartarus, alive or dead,” the ferryman threatened.

  Ansel looked at me with a grim expression. “We better get going.”

  “Come on,” Esme said with a hint of resentment in her voice. “I’ll lead you back out to the shoreline.”

  “Esme…” I started, wanting to say something, anything. A sense of injustice plagued my heart at the thought of having to leave her behind, especially after everything she just told us.

  “Don’t,” she said, holding up a hand to cut off my words. “Just don’t.”

  I closed my mouth and obeyed her wishes, though my stomach never settled the whole walk back down to the edge of hell.

  29

  We reached the edge of Tartarus after we took a moment to put Erich back in my locket to hide him properly from Hades’s clutches. When we reached the water, the boat waited there for us. Although, this time, it wasn’t empty.

  The lanky Charon stood at the bow of the boat, with his long pole in hand. He greeted our group by pushing back his hood and offering us all a sneer.

  “Daughter of Hephaestus,” he spat as his eyes burned into my skull. “And friends.”

  “Charon,” I replied, mimicking his horrid tone. “Fancy seeing you here.”

  “I could say the same, but I don’t take too kindly to people who steal my boat,” the ferryman said, nostrils flaring.

  “I didn’t steal it,” I said with a closed-mouth smile. “I just borrowed it. You were the one who capsized it and dumped us into the river.”

  “You had no right to be in my boat in the first place!” the psychopomp shouted. His voice bounced off the walls and shook some nearby rocks. After his surprising outburst, Charon took a moment to compose himself before continuing. “You have no respect for the gods.”

  “I do,” I answered, not bothering to hide my snark. “Just the ones worth respecting.”

  “Cheyenne,” Ansel hissed a warning in my ear. “We kind of need him to take us to Hades. I suggest you be nice.”

  “You should listen to the son of Apollo,” Charon said with a gesture towards Ansel. “Or maybe I won’t take you to Hades as you wish.”

  My eyes shifted from the ferryman to the soldier. I morphed my tight smile into something more cordial and relaxed. “Alright, Charon, thank you for the offer to take us to Hades. We would very much appreciate the ride.”

  “To be clear,” Charon said as he held up a finger. “I’m not taking you because you requested. Hades knows you are here and wants to see you.”

  “Good,” I said as I pushed back my shoulders and stepped into the boat as though I were a queen, and it was my carriage.

  Ansel moved to follow behind me, getting in the boat while Esme looked on from the shore. As I met her eye, there was a familiar burn at my chest. My hand flew up to the necklace instinctively. I was worried Erich glowed too bright, and Charon could see the spirit I was hiding around my neck.

  However, as my fingers connected with the metal locket, something happened that hadn’t ever before now. Erich spoke to me.

  Demand that she come with us, my half-brother said in my mind.

  What? I can’t do that, I protested, unsure what the hell he was thinking. Esme was dead and in Tartarus. What good was it going to do if we brought her with us to Hades?

  Trust me, Erich insisted. We need her.

  Did I trust Erich? Had he ever given me a reason not to? Even though an uneasy feeling stirred in the base of my stomach, I approached the bow of the boat, getting as close as I dared to the ferryman.

  “Charon, see that spirit on the shore? She’s coming with us.”

  “Cheyenne, don’t,” Esme warned with a shake of her head.

  “I have already delivered this spirit to her destination,” Charon sneered. He leaned forward, looming over Esme with a dagger gaze. “Where she will exist for the rest of eternity.”

  “I don’t think you heard me, Charon,” I said, strengthening my voice. “She’s coming with us.”

  “Or what?” Charon asked sharply as he whipped around and shot me the same deadly gaze.

  I held out my hands and grabbed the sides of the boat, making direct contact. Suddenly, the boat rocked back and forth violently. Charon had to hold on to his pole as he released a girly little scream, to keep from being toppled into the water.

  “No, no, no!” the psychopomp roared. “Do not take control of it again. Do not!”

  “Then the spirit comes with us,” I threatened as I kept the boat rocking as though it were in a storm on the ocean.

  “Fine!” Charon screamed. “Fine! She can accompany us.”

  Charon waved his hand, and Esme stumbled forward, no longer frozen in place. She didn’t say a word as she floated into the boat, taking the seat farthest from the ferryman.

  “Cheyenne,” Ansel hissed in my ear. “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I whispered back. “But it doesn’t feel right to leave her, does it?”

  Ansel shook his head and sat back on his seat, keeping the rest of his thoughts to himself.

  “You will have to answer for this, daughter of Hephaestus,” Charon growled. But, despite his threat, he pushed the pole into the inky liquid, and we moved away from the shoreline.

  The ride seemed longer than it had the first time around. We rode in a single file line with Charon at the head, Ansel up by the ferryman, me in the middle, and then Esme behind me. I turned around several times to check on her and see if she was still there. Every time I caught her eyes, I tried to offer her an encouraging smile, but she never returned it.

  Finally, we arrived on Hades’s doorstop. Instead of letting us into his home, the lord of the dead waited for us outside, between two pillars holding fire. His back was straight, chin high as he received us. Persephone lurked behind him, a snicker playing across her lips like a hyena on the verge of laughing.

  “Lord Hades,�
� Charon said with a low bow. “I have brought you the living souls who have snuck into the Underworld without your knowledge. As requested, sire.”

  “Well done, Charon,” Hades said without further acknowledgment of the ferryman. He addressed Ansel and I directly as he spoke our names aloud. “Cheyenne, daughter of Hephaestus, always a pleasure. And Ansel, son of Apollo, how delightful. How does a son of the sun god like my chambers?”

  “They seem to suit you perfectly,” Ansel said with his own cordial bow of the head.

  “Good answer,” Persephone giggled from behind her husband. “Clever one, you are.”

  “When I sensed the presence of two lives souls in the Underworld, this close to the first of December, I figured it had to be you,” Hades said with a half-smile that didn’t reach up to his eyes. “But it seems you have picked up an extra passenger. Who is this, Cheyenne?”

  “This is Esme, daughter of Prometheus,” I said with a gesture to Esme, who bowed her head respectfully.

  “I do not understand,” Hades said as he tilted his head. “This soul is fresh, newly dead. When we made our bargain, you came wanting a soul that had already perished. In fact, in anticipation of your arrival, I brought her with me.”

  Hades opened his arm and gestured towards the doorway that led to his home. As my brain processed the lord of the dead’s words, my heart leaped into my throat. He couldn’t have known. But then again, he was a god. They had a tendency to know a lot more than we demigods ever did.

  There, before my very eyes, stood Ruby. She was in grayscale and pox-marked like Esme was, but she greeted me with a quintessential smile. Despite her new coloring, her posture, her tone, and her gestures were so familiar, tears crept out of the corners of my eyes.

  “Cheyenne?” the daughter of Poseidon asked, a look of confusion coming over her face. “What are you doing here?”

  “Ruby!” I cried. I couldn’t help myself. I rushed forward, intent on wrapping her into the biggest hug. Then I remembered where we were and the kind of state that she was in. So I pulled back and settled for standing a foot from her, gazing upon my mentor with loving eyes.

  “I can’t believe it,” I said, my voice constantly hoarse. “You’re actually here.”

  “Yeah, I’m here, but what the hell are you doing here?” Ruby said with a disapproving shake of her head. “You don’t look dead.”

  “I’ve come to bring you back,” I said, the emotion turning into urgency. “They ruled your death a suicide, but I knew it couldn’t be even though everyone said it was. Then Esme admitted to killing you, but only because she was under Eris’s control. I knew then that you hadn’t been given a fair chance, so I came all this way to bring you back.”

  “No, kiddo,” Ruby said, her expression shifting to a grim one. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “I shouldn’t have--” I blinked at my mentor. “What do you mean? Of course, I had to do that. You… your death was completely unfair and wrong.”

  “That may be true…” Ruby said as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, but she trailed off and didn’t finish her sentence, refusing to look at me.

  I tried to read her expression. Her discomfort was clear, but something in my mind wouldn’t let me comprehend the very idea. It seemed so impossible, but I needed to hear it from her own mouth.

  “So you don’t… you don’t want to come back to the mortal world?” I said, my voice sounding foreign in my own ears.

  Ruby looked up, finally meeting my eye. “No, Cheyenne, I don’t.”

  “But…” I said, trying to push past the lump that formed in my throat and the hurt that pierced my heart. “Why not?”

  “Because I’m not in Tartarus,” Ruby said with a simple shrug. “I’m in the Fields. With Alexandria.”

  Her words stole my breath away. The thought of Ruby being united with her long-lost love warmed me, but it wasn’t enough to heal the hurt at the thought of losing her a second time.

  “And I’m healthy,” Ruby added with a bright smile. “I haven’t been this healthy and happy in a long, long time.”

  The ghost of my mentor looked to Hades, as though she were asking for approval. The Lord of the Underworld gave it with a slight nod of his head. Ruby then reached out and put her hands on my shoulders.

  It wasn’t cold or wispy. I felt her hands, solid as if they were real. She looked me in the eyes, familiar and kind. But there was a stubbornness behind them, knowing that what she had to say needed to be taken as gospel. I would be a fool to think otherwise.

  This was not the first time I’d gotten this look. We’re shared this moment many times before. Whenever Ruby had to teach me a hard lesson, whether about blacksmithing or life, she would give me this look. It hit me, then, that this would probably be the last time I would ever get that look from her.

  I let the tears fall as she spoke. Of course, my expression of sadness didn’t deter Ruby. She ventured on, speaking her truth and sharing her pearl of wisdom.

  “It was my time, Cheyenne,” Ruby said, never taking her eyes off mine. “Whether or not it was fair doesn’t matter. I don’t want to go back to a life of that pain and loss. Not while I’m happy and with my love again.”

  “But you weren’t done,” I protested, my voice tight. “There’s still so much more that you can do.” Like help me, I wanted to add, but something stopped me short.

  Something in my words felt hollow and childlike. Slowly but surely, I realized the end result of this conversation. I just didn’t want to face it. This woman was one of the most significant people in my life. It was like losing an aunt or a second mother in a way.

  I’d made this whole journey to save her and gain justice for her, but she didn’t need it. She was doing just fine on her own.

  “I did everything I was supposed to do,” Ruby said. Then she put a hand on my cheek, an intimate gesture and quite out of character for her. “You’re not the only demigod to encounter a prophecy or two, you know.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked as I reached up and swiped my cheek, preventing the tears from reaching my chin.

  “Just that I know I’ve done everything I was supposed to do in my life,” Ruby said. She lowered her voice and added, “Teaching you was one of those things. I was told that my greatest role wasn’t to be a hero. It was to mentor one. A great one that would eventually save the world.”

  I scoffed, an involuntary reaction that bubbled up from the back of my throat. Ruby shot me a scornful look.

  “I’m trying to be sentimental here and give you a compliment,” she said, her voice suddenly shifting back to her classic, cynical tone. “The least you could do is show me some respect and not interrupt me while I’m doing it.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said, a sheepish blush creeping into my cheeks. The way we settled back into our cheeky banter comforted me.

  But Ruby quickly shifted back to sincerity as she put both hands on my face and brought our foreheads together.

  “You’re that hero, Cheyenne,” Ruby whispered so that her words stayed between the two of us. “The one spoken about in my prophecy. I know it deep down in my bones. I’m honored to have been a part of helping you be the woman and the hero you are.”

  “I’m not a hero,” I said with a sad shake of my head.

  “Now that’s the biggest bunch of bullshit I’ve ever heard,” Ruby said sternly, taking her hands off me and putting them on her hips.

  I couldn’t help it, I laughed. It was so like Ruby to call me out on my shit. I needed that in my life. I needed her.

  But she wasn’t mine to keep. If I loved her as much as I said I did, then I needed to leave her here. My mentor was clearly happy and fulfilled in her afterlife. Who was I to rob her of that? It was one thing when I thought she had been wrongly put in Tartarus, to suffer out her eternity. Ruby wasn’t being tortured. She was becoming whole again.

  “You good, kiddo?” Ruby said with a knowing eye, as though she had just read my mind as I came to the re
alization.

  “I will be,” I assured her.

  “I know you will,” Ruby confirmed with all the confidence I needed.

  With one last smile at me, she looked past me and over my shoulder. The daughter of Poseidon lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes expectantly. “Hey, Ansel!”

  “Yes, ma’am?” Ansel said, jumping to attention.

  “You take care of this one, you hear me?” she said with a sharp point at him. “Or I will come back just to haunt your ass.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Ansel said with a half-smile at the corner of his mouth. But his voice conveyed a seriousness, as though he’d just accepted a mission from the General himself.

  Ruby’s attention shifted back to me, with one more check to see that I would be alright. As hard as it was, I offered her a nod. Though my heart ached, I let her go.

  Ruby glanced at Hades. “May I go back now, my lord?”

  “I’m never opposed to keeping souls in my realm,” Hades replied with his own sly smirk, as though he knew this would happen. He opened his arm, gesturing away from us. He gestured for Ruby to walk forward, back towards the doorway that led to his home.

  With one last wave over her shoulder, my mentor walked forward and away from me. With each step, her figure faded until there was nothing where Ruby had once stood.

  “Well,” Hades said, calm and composed as ever. “I believe we have nothing more to discuss. Charon, if you could please take these mortals back the way they came? They have no place here.” The god waved his hand dismissively and began to walk away from us.

  I closed my eyes and took a few shallow breaths, doing my best to keep them even and slow. It was surreal to think that I had come all this way for what felt like nothing. My whole plan revolved around bringing Ruby back to the mortal realm. Never once did I think about what she might have wanted. It had been a dangerous and foolish journey. One that I’d dragged Ansel and Erich through as well.

  I opened my eyes and turned to my companions, who loyally stuck with me throughout this ridiculous plan. Ansel stood there, waiting for me to approach. His face was blank, shielding me from his real emotions that stirred behind his eyes. I knew he wanted to run up and fold me into his arms, comfort me. But I wouldn’t allow it. Not with everyone watching. He could do that later, in the evening, when we were alone.